More readers respond

Published 10:00 pm, Friday, August 18, 2006

The burning question that Horsey burned in with a red hot poker, was the most profound one yet. I think all caring souls have asked themselves that question; "Why do people ignore reality?" Of course the answer is "Because of a selfish agenda," be it money, power or keeping your job and/or friends and still be able to look yourself in the mirror. They hypnotize themselves to believe the politically correct understandings. Such as "Computerized democracy is good for you, because it is cheaper." "Just because there are no polling places, it doesn't mean your vote isn't counted," and the results aren't honest.

The published answers will fit the political frame of mind in King and Snohomish County to be sure.

People ignore reality for the same reason they can't even answer simple questions about the world we live in. Basically they are stupid and have a "sheep mentality." The comparison can be extended further by the fact that one small intelligent dog can control the whole flock and we have all witnessed the phenomena of every sheep in a column jumping over the same invisible distraction. Enough said.

Ben ShortAnacortes

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It is astounding to me that the editorial position of this paper and so many others is to take the physically impossible claims made by the Bush administration about 9/11 as fact. The laws of physics are not variable.

Horsey observed, without noting that it was Hitler who wrote it, that people are more likely to believe big lies than small ones. The story we have been told about 9/11 is a big lie. This is the point Hitler made with those words -- governments can get people to do such things as fight illegal wars and sacrifice their democracy when the lie is big enough. Now Americans have done just that. And to Horsey, those of us who question it are the dupes? And those who have never even looked into the details and accept unquestioningly the factually impossible claims of known liars are somehow virtuous for their ignorance and gullibility?

When one examines the physics of how the towers came down it is obvious that more than fire and gravity were involved. They all three looked like controlled demolitions because they were controlled demolitions. This is no longer even conjecture, it is the only logical conclusion to draw from the available evidence.

Oh, perhaps it might matter here to point out that a physicist at BYU who analyzed samples of molten steel (the fact of the steel being molten is one of those contradictions with the laws of physics, by the way) from the WTC site and actually found traces of the incendiary used in the controlled demolitions. It is called Thermate and it melts steel like butter on a warm day.

Horsey's own well considered objection to these facts is the behavior of the Bush administration in New Orleans and Baghdad. These people are not incompetent, and New Orleans does not prove incompetence -- it proves indifference. They did not care about the people of New Orleans and so did not respond. They do not care about the people of Iraq, and in fact want a state of endless war, so Baghdad is a disaster.

The question of what really happened on 9/11 is one that can be discovered through research, logic and evidence, not through the anecdotal musings of people who have never bothered to examine the issues or the evidence.

Dear readers, look at the evidence, do some research, then decide.

As for why people like Horsey and the P-I Editorial Board are so willing to believe comfortable lies than to actually research facts, I cannot say. But I can say that it is shameful for a newspaper to treat known liars as reasonable sources and to take repetition of a lie for evidence of its truth.

The answer is contained in the question -- It's "reassuring myths" that we must believe in order to go on with our lives.

Even the Seattle P-I helps to create for us a nice, mythical "Truman Show" world in which to live, and anyone trying to break out of it becomes much less comfortable, to say the least.

For example, I doubt my other letter that mentions the convenient lie about how JFK actually died will be considered for publication. That buried truth and the truth about 9/11, (the obvious official ignoring of indisputable facts such as the collapse of a 47-story building that was NOT hit by an airliner that day) both uncover evil so preposterous that I also refuse to believe either.

I would rather deny than suffer the despair that would result from facing the facts!

L. Urban KohlerAshland, Ore.

Because realities are boring and myths just like gossip allow people to fuel the controversy.

We each build our own realities using both acquired and self-hewn components. Once we've packaged our versions of reality, we don't like to see them change. In truth, each of us views all new information through our own reality's prism and are not at all hesitant to bend and distort any new inputs so that they more closely conform to our reality. In this way we maintain our sanity. We can feel like we have some semblance of control over an environment in which we are dwarfed. We like to see ourselves as masters of our fate, but this mastery is, for the most part, illusion.

Finally, be careful of what you regard as "hard reality." The only true hard reality for living things is death's inevitability and, given the direction that genetic engineering is headed, even that may change. Our world-views are protective garb used to shield us from an otherwise cold and indifferent universe. Why on earth would we want to give them up?

Bob WojtynaWoodinville

I don't really understand why so many people are eager to ignore hard realities and buy into reassuring myths. But when it comes to 9/11, I'm no longer buying into the myth that our government would never allow thousands of its citizens to die in order to further its military strategy. And after studying the evidence for over a year now, I've long since found it impossible to ignore the hard reality that 9/11 was an inside job.

With two hypotheses of your own, you're throwing out hundreds of damning pieces of evidence. Your first is that to believe the neocons were complicit in 9/11, we would have to believe they came to office ready for it. Please read the Project for a New America Century's paper "Rebuilding America's Defenses," published in September 2000, in which they openly hope for a "New Pearl Harbor" in order to justify a major increase in military presence, especially in the Middle East.

Also, follow the story of the pipeline through Afghanistan that the oil companies wanted to build (which was completed earlier this year), and the government's initial negotiations with the Taliban. I highly recommend the books "Crossing the Rubicon" and "The Terror Timeline" for detailed information. There is no question that the neoconservative cabal entered Washington in January 2001 with plans for some type of attack such as 9/11. The timeline is quite clear if you take the time to research it.

Your second hypothesis is that this administration is too incompetent to carry out such a crime, given their performance in Baghdad and New Orleans. Again, a little background is in order. The philosophy of the neocons, in a nutshell, is protection of the economic order by any means necessary including military invasion and covert intelligence. This means that Iraq, Iran and other places that have oil are of strategic importance. Places that house a large number of low-rent consumers are of no importance. If you have studied the neocons plans and intentions, there is nothing about Baghdad or New Orleans that should suggest anything like incompetence. I suggest the book "The 9/11 Commission Report: Omissions and Distortions" by David Ray Griffin, which provides a conclusive refutation of the official story and proof of the cover-up, with who conducted the investigation and their ties to oil and the administration.

There have been many, many books written on the above, and much more. The evidence is a'plenty.

I make a living by research and logical analysis. I was not at all "comforted" by discovering that 9/11 was the work of the neoconservative cabal in Washington.

Leo BrodieSeattle

Why should we be surprised that people buy into myths? Without a shred of evidence, the majority of Americans believe in the existence and omniscience of a supernatural being that watches over our every move to ultimately determine whether we deserve eternal pleasure or pain after death. Why conjure up such a bizarre concept? Simple enough -- humans fear their own mortality and, for the most part, can't cope.

This ultimate myth -- this extreme distortion of reality -- only works if you wall off the part of your mind that normally drives humans to venture into unknown territory in search of the truth. The result is inevitably authoritarianism -- either as a demagogue or as one of their many "sheeple."

And at that point, anything is possible. Holocaust myth? No problem. WMD in Iraq? If my president and the conservative radio pundits say so.

However, people who believe in a 9/11 conspiracy fall in a different category. They may be fearful of our government, but they are not afraid to face reality and search for the truth behind it. I, personally, do not believe our current administration is capable of such a complex conspiracy. Yet, there is plenty of reason to believe that much more than incompetence was involved.

Jim RybockSeattle

If David Horsey really wants to understand why so many prefer comforting myths to reality, it seems curious that he hasn't simply asked that famous man in the mirror.

He has often publicly identified himself as a Christian. Thus, it is fair to conclude that he believes in the virgin birth, resurrection and divinity of Jesus of Nazareth, for which there isn't the tiniest shred of historical evidence, and which is completely contradicted by all scientific evidence.

People often ignore so-called hard reality and accept reassuring myths for many reasons including the following ones:

It contradicts their upbringing or worldview; It flies in the face of popular opinion or peer pressure;

It undermines vested interests, such as stock in an industry that harms the public health (maintaining the tobacco has not been proven to be a carcinogen, for instance, when one partially owns s tobacco company); and Simple denial, as refusing to acknowledge physical symptoms may indicate serious illness.

In the case of the Santa Claus, Easter Bunny and stork legends, people in an earlier time may have thought children needed to be shielded from the truth. Also they provided a popular justification for commerce...up to one-third of many retailers' profits are made during the Christmas season, for instance.

The world is changing at an increasingly rapid pace, yet some adults try to perpetuate fables that not even too many kids believe anymore. We do so at our own peril, though.

My parents, for instance, were Holocaust survivors. My mother managed to flee to England, where she eventually found work at a shipping company whose head shared a belief with Winston Churchill and a few other Britons that Hitler was about to try to exterminate Europe's Jews. The mass of English subjects, though, believed, with Prime Minister Chamberlain, that Hitler was a benign dictator who had no evil intentions.

In other words, they chose to accept the Big Lie -- and almost paid for it with their freedom. Those who find the truth uncomfortable or threatening will usually choose to avoid hard realities in favor of reassuring fairy tales.

Victor E. Buksbazen, Ph.D.Author of, "The Jewish People

in a Christian World"

Your question is an audacious example of choplogic. The equation of serious and measured criticism of the 9/11 Commission's official take on that tragedy with Holocaust denial or, for that matter, flat-earth theories and other outré subjects is a cynical technique employed to curtail, not invite, informed and reasonable discussion. Recent revelations by none other than Thomas Kean and Lee Hamilton, who headed up the 9/11 investigation, clearly indicate that the commission's effort was plagued by myriad problems and political pressures. Even prior to those admissions, it was painfully evident that the panel's final report was sloppy and incomplete. Writing in the November 2004 Harper's magazine, the respected writer Benjamin DeMott -- author of "Junk Politics" and now deceased -- opined that the commission's report was a document for "the idolatrous fool, the sucker, the clueless consumer, the ad person's delight."

By amalgamating disparate controversies concerning the Holocaust and the non-existence of WMD in Iraq with the urgent and legitimate questions regarding the true etiology of 9/11, your intention would appear to be deliberate confusion rather than careful explication. It would seem that the individuals and organizations who persist in an honest effort to explore the nagging questions ignored by Kean and Hamilton's 9/11 panel are the ones willing to confront "hard realities." It cannot be denied that the war-profiteers and oil men of the Bush administration were pleased to seize upon any excuse to embark on an effort -- no matter how reckless -- to enhance their systematic control of strategic oil-rich areas of the world. 9/11 surely opened the door to that opportunity. And the possibility that any aspect of our government may have been in any fashion remotely complicit in the horrible events of that dreadful day is hardly a "reassuring" notion.

Joe MartinSeattle

I believe that insecurity runs deep inside the minds of modern humans from roots in belief systems -- religions.

Entire generations are raised by the guide lives taught in religion. Belief systems are about blind faith not reality or fact. People who have settled all their inner questions about existence and where life's origins begin have few worries or curiosities about reality. They have found a mental comfort zone.

I consider it blind faith to be extremely irresponsible in that it blocks rational questions about that faith. Evidence is a better way to formulate intelligent decisions.

Renate PinchSeattle

Horsey's question on why people ignore hard facts follows up his cartoon a few days earlier where the holocaust deniers, weapons of mass destruction believers and 9/11 official story doubters were grouped together as reality starved.

The cartoon reminded me of the simple aptitude test from grade school where you look at a group of pictures (perhaps an apple an orange and a carrot) and pick out which one doesn't belong. Horsey is the one not living in reality if he denies the mountain of hard and circumstantial evidence that proves the 9/11 attack was not pulled off solely by Muslim extremists. He also demonstrates a complete lack of understanding of the physics involved. You cannot crush hundreds of thousands of tons of reinforced steel and concrete in a perfectly symmetrical way by slamming jets into a building. And that says nothing of how building No. 7 (containing Rudy Giuliani's Terrorist Command Center) magically caught fire and also collapsed perfectly as if professionally demolished.

I've listened in befuddled amusement as people will go to extraordinary lengths to point out that they are not conspiracy theorists or engage in conspiracy theories. I believe you have two choices in regards to 9/11: You believe in a conspiracy or you believe that hundreds of extraordinary coincidences all converged on that day.

If you are a coincidence theorists then you have to ignore all the circumstantial evidence that led up to the attack and the published positions by the neocons' Project for New American Century and their call for a galvanizing event like "A New Pearl Harbor," and ignore the rush to remove and destroy evidence and ignore the fact that the Bush backers and business partners including GHW Bush, the bin Laden family and the Carlyle Group and Dick Cheney's Halliburton and the oil and energy tycoons who met secretly with Cheney (just prior to 9/11) are all raking in millions and billions of dollars while dismantling our Constitutional rights. And all this from a neocon led regime and enabled by GOP dominated government that is on record several times for outright lying to the American public about the so-called threat from the weapons of mass destruction.

To doubt the conspiracy theory one has to believe that Osama was so mad at the U.S. for having bases in the Muslim Holy land that he wanted to attack us. Somehow while he was plotting he forgot to consider that if we were attacked that we would surely establish a much larger U.S. military presence in the Muslim holy land, at least those parts of the holy land that contain oil or, gas-and-oil pipeline routes (Afghanistan). You have to believe that it was by sheer coincidence that Cheney had a half-dozen war games running that day that effectively evacuated our airspace and stood down what would have been a routine Norad interception.

You have to ignore the fact that Bush, Cheney and Condoleezza Rice all came from the oil industry and that these phony wars allowed for the pipelines in Afghanistan, and the seizure of the Iraq oil fields and that we now pay $3.15 per gallon and the oil companies are making historically record profits while stifling American small business. And you have ignored that these obscene profits will be used to further corrupt and take over our government and the world's governments.

But OK, Horsey, I understand that it is more important for you to be perceived by your academic peers as to be above conspiracy theories (although conspiracy to commit criminal activity is common). As with much of the fear-dominated public, you are merely protecting your professional reputation, (income, money) while so many are violently killed in these wars because established journalists are cowards and know from where their bread is buttered.

If this theory is so wrong-headed, what does it hurt to have public discussions about the events during that time including the Anthrax attack on two Democratic senators? Why did Bush resist forming a commission to investigate the largest mass murder in American history? Why did he and Cheney refuse to testify separately or under oath to Bush's own hand-picked commission? Why did Cheney fight disclosure of his secret energy task force prior to 9/11 all the way to the Supreme Court? What does he have to hide? I guess nothing because according to you, anyone who would lie us into war and cause hundreds of thousands of lives and maiming certainly wouldn't lie to us about an event that would trigger those wars. Who's out of touch with reality, Horsey?

Lee Anderson Duvall

The notion of the Divine is the biggest myth of all, and organized religion the biggest hoax perpetrated on mankind.

Religion exploits the normal human fear of death and desire for favor, and most especially eternity as an expression of the quest for meaning. Mankind is hypnotized by any prophet or deity who claims, through the mechanism of revelation, to possess the answer to life's mysteries and a supernatural remedy for ills both deserved and undeserved.

Religion undermines personal autonomy, which is our birthright. It's one thing to feel connected to the cosmos. It's another to allow the authority of a self-serving priesthood (seeking to perpetuate an irrational belief system that runs contrary to all the evidence) to transform this connectedness into rigid conformit, to channel man's free spirit toward the cult of personality and worship. Worship! Oh obscene servility!

Rouse yourself! Look around you and see the world and its people as they truly are. Put aside your dependence on the facile moral absolutes of formal religious instruction. Strive instead for moral agency that requires you to understand nuance in a complex world; to weigh the consequences of your actions for yourself and your fellows, and for future generations. Find that meaning within yourself. Author your own life.

Lyrr DescyShoreline

It isn't the 50 percent of Americans who believe Saddam had WMD that are ignoring reality, it's the P-I and the rest of the Old Media, along with other liberals and Bush-haters.

Fact: Saddam used biological WMD to ruthlessly murder 300,000 of his own people (Kurds).

Fact: Coalition forces have found and destroyed in excess of 500,000 TONS of explosive ordinance.

Fact: Saddam violated 17 separate U.N. resolutions regarding his possession of the weapons themselves and the means to produce them. He kicked the U.N. inspectors out.

Fact: Saddam retained the means to produce biological weapons (some of them so toxic that even a few liters could wipe out an entire city's population -- isn't that a WMD?). HUNDREDS of small bio-labs have been discovered by coalition forces, as have written plans to distribute small amounts of these toxic substances to terrorist groups.

Fact: Saddam's own generals believed he had WMDs.

Fact: No matter how much the P-I attempts to rewrite history and insult the intelligence of people who recognize and disagree with its distorted accounts of the U.S. involvement in Iraq. You're only fooling yourselves and a very small percentage of your shrinking readership.

Maybe the P-I and other appeasers believe we should have presumed no evil intent based on Saddam's course of action and the U.N. should have adopted another 30 or 40 resolutions, but those of us with IQs greater than our shoe size prefer to error on the side of safety and security.

Randall DoddMill Creek

I think the answers are two:

1. We are lazy and looking for easy answers. Facts tend to lead us into science, engineering, biology, (even evolution), math etc, i.e., the "hard sciences," which is too much like work for modern Americans who want it all to be easy.

2. Our church "leaders" tell us "it's all there in the good book," which contains a bunch of myths. And they, being close to God, ought to know.

Jeff DouthwaiteSeattle

I find it very difficult to believe that 56 percent or whatever the actual percentage might be that still believe the WMD myth perpetrated on us by our "leaders." That goes along with the other myths that tell us the war in Iraq was unavoidable and the invasion of Afghanistan would settle the score for the World Trade Center tragedy.

President Bush doesn't even talk about Osama anymore because it is just another broken promise made by him and his motley crew. As for those Muslims who believe Hitler was a saint for killing Jews, just have a look at what they are doing to one another today. What I find so hard to believe is that ALL those people that are so intent on killing one another believe in the same god. Believing in those myths is just the coward's way to avoid the truth.

I am truly upset and confused because all I see are lies and half-truths.

Bill ShulerFederal Way

I think you are conflating two different categories of ignorance, although there is some overlap in mechanism. One is ignorance about the history, current events and structure of the world in general -- lack of knowledge, information, and well-documented facts and realities -- the "hard realities" in your title. Jay Leno, among others, has repeatedly dramatized how even graduates of elite universities often are unable to tell you when the American Civil War occurred, or find Iraq on a map. And many large surveys have demonstrated this incredible ignorance prevalent in our society. Thus, human beings aren't just eager to ignore facts; they often don't know them in the first place! This factual ignorance is in part due, I think, to the increasing nichefication of our society. As a nation, even including only those with a college education, we are increasingly full of anti-Renaissance folks, interested only in a narrow range of topics, specialized from early in their careers.

Second, the vast majority of Americans are poorly educated in terms of learning how to be critical, skeptical thinkers, who can weigh evidence and reach semi-independent conclusions and informed opinions. Very little emphasis on this ability is included in standard educational curricula and even in elite university programs. And it certainly isn't often displayed in our media. This means that we as a people are very gullible and vulnerable to the often simplistic, uncritical, non-evidence based views we are exposed to by our politicians, media, advertisers and other contacts. We are suckers for propaganda!

Third, we as human beings have always had to deal with our anxieties about our mortality, tragedies and the vicissitudes of life. And most of the world's people have tried to do this by creating gods, spirits, and preposterous notions of an afterlife, "eternal soul" etc. This has led, in the major monotheistic systems now prevalent, to belief in a book allegedly detailing the dictums of their particular god (Jehovah, Jesus, Allah etc.). Because of indoctrination by one's parents and elders in early childhood, as well as the likelihood of a genetic predisposition to so believe (the immune system is probably enhanced), a large percentage of current world population consists of true believers. And if you are a fundamentalist believer, all you have to do is interpret the good book in a way that answers your question. You don't have to think, weigh evidence, work through a complex question. It is classic deductive reasoning and reminds one of "Escape From Freedom," Eric Fromm's classic. So myths are attractive to human beings because they answer complex questions with simplistic answers, thus obviating the need for the difficult work of reaching an informed opinion on one's own; they allay important anxieties and thus give comfort; and finally, myths about national virtue promote national unity and patriotism, making militarism and empire-building much easier to pursue.

L.F. FensterSeattle

The myth President Bush promoted again in his speech after the recent foiled airline terror plot is that Islamic terrorists are attacking America because they hate people who love freedom. He has often said that the terrorists hate freedom. Hard fact: They hate American imperialism.

The myth that most Americans have grown up with is that our nation has more freedom than any other nation and that we will fight for other nations to have freedom. We are the good guys.

Many Americans have closed their eyes and ears to the hard fact that we invaded Iraq and killed thousands of innocent people without provocation. They bought into the Bush administration myth that the 9/11 terrorists were connected to Saddam Hussein and that Iraq had WMD -- that Iraq was part of an axis of evil ready to attack our freedoms. Many Americans were actually willing to give up freedom with the Patriot Act to preserve the myth.

People just can't handle the truth -- that often the powerful leaders and corporations that control countries (even our own) are motivated by power and greed. The powerful promote the myth, but they don't buy into it.

Jacquelin KonisBainbridge Island

The same reason people accept one of the worst non-fiction books ever written as "The Truth," (The Bible). It makes life so much simpler not actually having to use your brain to form a cognizant thought, you can just refer to the latest conspiracy theory, spin from the politicians, or some passage in the Bible to explain all.

Larry St. ClairKent

Hard realities are "hard" and myths are comforting and fun. Faced with the frightening uncertainty of life, the great unanswered questions of being, we are all children at heart.

We sometimes cling to myths because they provide "community." Myths give us a sense of control, they relieve us of responsibility for our future and our environment, and they provide cover and justification for some of our uglier passions (such as revenge). They also are a refuge against overwhelming circumstances, they let us be lazy thinkers, and they provide a picture of "reality" we can all understand without a PhD in science or math. Myths underwrite social order and sanctify manmade laws while giving our existence purpose and our personal lives an intimate relation with something universal and powerful. And all that myths demand of us is "faith" and loyalty.

Charles Henderson

Everett

The best book on the conspiracy questions of 9/11, "Crossing the Rubicon," is now available at the Harvard Business School library. Even if one can't swallow the poison pill of government foreknowledge of the attacks, "Crossing the Rubicon" provides ample evidence, all footnoted, that pokes holes in the conventional arguments of government ignorance, while supplying information unprinted in traditional news and TV reports.

It is difficult to elaborate all the evidence that explains why one-third of the country believes in a conspiracy, some of it, no doubt, poor. But the hard research has been done, and somehow this research has been made available to a segment of the population. For David Horsey to surmise that all conspiracy evidence on 9/11 is poorly researched only goes to uncover his own ignorance on the matter. Of the one-third of the population that has been persuaded by conspiracy evidence, how many of those are college educated and hold professional careers? Horsey has not really dug enough into the subject, it is obvious. I would guess that one-half of the one-third are college degree-holding-professionals: within my own family I know of three members, one a CPA and MBA graduate.

A woman recently told me of a Midwestern businessman she knew during World War II who kept receiving disturbing letters from his family in Germany. The letters told of a terrible genocide going on there. The businessman finally decided to call his senator in Washington, D.C., to see if he had heard any such terrible news himself. The senator, ignorant as the businessman, blithey told him there were no such atrocitites going in Germany and to forget the whole matter. Likewise, for Daivd Horsey to blithely ignore the real work that has happened in 9/11 research would merely place him in the same category as that old Midwestern senator.

Ed PetersonSeattle

We accept the myths because, for the most part, they work for us. I was recently watching a special on the Tsunami that hit Thailand. They had home video of the water just disappearing off the beach and going so far out that boats were grounded and people started to wonder out past where boats had been anchored just minutes before. The person taking the video was confused and they said, "I have never seen the water go out that far before." How strange, they had no reference for this and did not understand it. Neither did the thousands of people walking out into the dry ocean. Then, 250,000 people died.

There was an interesting side story about a remote island that was inhabited by an ancient people. The small Island was right in the way of the tsunami and got hit harder than Thailand. But everyone on this small island survived. How can that be? The people lived on the beaches of the island and survived off the sea. They should have been wiped out, there is no way they could understand the ways of a tsunami. They interviewed one of the tribesmen and translated the conversation. It turns out their mythology talks about the earth God and the water God. These two gods are always fighting one another. When they saw the water go way out, they new that the earth God had really hurt the water God and there would be a backlash from the water God, unlike anything they had ever seen, so they immediately ran deep into the forest of the island. They went as far as they could go from the water line. As it turns out, they were right, the water God came back with a vengeance and because these people understood the mythology they were able to survive. Pretty hard to tell them the difference between facts and myth. Do you think they are going to be convinced of anything different? The myth is simple and it works pretty well to explain the tides, tsunamis and their surroundings so they can survive.

As human's we are all susceptible to this. Faith can move mountains in more ways than one. I have similar beliefs to you, when it comes to the Holocaust, WMD and 9/11. I believe in the Holocaust because I have been taught about it in school and society. I have been told about the physical evidence and I have seen movies. But I have not seen or touched any physical evidence, I have not talked to any survivors, I have not talked to any soldiers who were there. I have taken it on faith that what I learned in school was fact. But, there is a possibility that all I learned in school was actually a myth. So really the people who believe the Holocaust never happened are not necessarily less intelligent or less reliant on facts. They have learned about their facts, the same way we have and they have taken them on faith.

The world is a very complicated place. We have to simplify things so that we can quickly understand things and protect ourselves. Think of your 2-year-old. You teach him to stay out of the street. You don't try to teach him that it is OK to cross the street after you have looked both ways and made sure no cars are coming. You simplify it, just stay out of the street, until they are ready for further explanation.

In order for me to understand your point I need to simplify it. I think you are trying to say that if we all paid attention to the facts instead of clinging to our myths it would be a better place. And you ask, why can't we do this? When I think you really mean, why can't the Islamists do this? The unfortunate thing about facts is that they are not reliable and, in many ways, they are not important. Radical Islamists have plenty of "facts" that they can throw out to justify their behavior (I don't pretend to know what those are, but I am sure they have them). I say forget about the facts of whether the Holocaust happened or whether Jesus was the son of God or whether Muhammad is the one profit or 9/11 happened or not. These things might as well be myths.

What is important is that we have a group of people, radical Islamists, that are using a tactic called terrorism to destabilize the basic fabric and trust of civilization. This is not a "war on Terrorism". That is completely in accurate, we cannot have a war on terrorism. That would be like having a war on kamikazes or a war on B2 Bombers. Terrorism is a tactic that a very small percentage of the world population has decided to use to send a message. The entire human race needs to make a quantum leap in evolution that takes us beyond the artificial boundaries we create around our different groups. Artificial boundaries like countries, cities, religions, geographies, skin color, etc. It will take a lot more than focusing on facts to get us there. We need to unify the hearts and minds of humanity to agree on some basic principles about how we are going to treat one another. I don't know what all of those principles should be, but I do know for sure that terrorist tactics are not acceptable.

David O'NealSeattle

Just two ways to handle a problem, fact and emotion.

Emotion wins most of the time.

Jim CarstenLacey

When reading your column, I couldn't help but be reminded of the famous line from the movie "A Few Good Men" where Jack Nicholson shouts in rage..."YOU CAN'T HANDLE THE TRUTH." It seems to me that far too many Americans are in total denial about the reality that is the six years of the Dubya Bush presidency. Not that Americans have never been lied to before by our local, state or federal government. But the status quo is clearly getting much worse because of the man how pledged to be an "outsider" bringing much needed change to Washington, D.C.

As one informed citizen who has visited the death camps in Europe, I have no pity for the lack of intelligence of those who claim that the Holocaust is a hoax. Anyone who has seen what I have seen and felt what I have couldn't help but be empathetic about such a crime against humanity. As a draft-age non-exempt male during the height of the Vietnam War, I was forced to make a live-changing choice in order avoid being drafted into the Army to fight in that other no-win war. As a baby-boomer who is very worried about the decline of middle class jobs and the wages, I am also worried about the effect it will have on those of us who must retire in the next two decades.

I must say that "The Truth" about a lot of things wrong in our country today are very hard to deal with. While I personally do not partake in so-called reality TV, I know far too many people who would rather be engaged by such

fantasies than deal with the true realities of what is happening all around

them. We are all witnessing the consequences of what will turn out to be

the very first generation in U.S. history to experience a declining standard of living rather than an improved one. The very first generation to be worse off than our parents are. All clearly indicative of a very basic "truth" that too many Americans would rather not handle.

Ken WhitfieldRenton

The ego trip and brainwashing are the two reasons why people ignore truth, reality, facts, critical thinking and science. The ego trip is of "beliefs." My primitve/tribal beleif is right so I'm going to take my primitive/tribal belief and make/force you believe, too, or else and we will make/force the children to believe too, or else. Brainwashing children is predatory and parasitic.

The oppression of women is also immoral. Women out there, "man" is not the boss of you just because he says he is or tries to force you to belivie it. He's just feeding his ego at your expense.

Get off the ego trip and stop brainwashing the children and live in the present. I am tired of the tribal mentality of years past. Evolve already ... science is our salvation.

Judy NortonWoodinville

The answer is simple: We have been conditioned through fear.

We are each of us responsible for every war because of the aggressiveness of our own lives, our ideals, our gods and our prejudices.

Spritual leaders have tried to twist us in new patterns and that hasn't led us very far.

Learned men have told us that all paths lead to the truth, which is obviously absurd.

Truth has no path, and that is the beauty of truth.

So you cannot depend upon anybody. There is no guide, no teacher, no authority. There is only you, your relationship with others and the world. There is nothing else.

Robert TurnerSequim

People who ignore reality refuse or cannot think for themselves. They live in never-never land and haven't had a praiseworthy thought since the birth of their last child!

Dottie CainionMukilteo

People ignore reality because reality is inconvenient; it requires you to think, it requires you to get involved; it forces people out of their protective little shell of hear no evil, see no evil, and speak no evil.

People ignore reality because our governmental leaders will use someone else's money to bail us out, we are living in a glorified third world country, financially bankrupt and ignoring the warnings. (What happens when the people are forced to realize that the government has run out of money will be very scary.)

People ignore reality because legally we can and it is so much easer then dealing with morally and ethically challenging questions which opens up Pandora's box of religion. The president of this country has used signing statements to exempt himself from laws he refuses to follow. Numerous laws have been written for special interest originations making it legal for our elected sycophants to drain the trough, legal but hardly the moral or ethical thing to do.

People ignore reality because we are living for the here and now, with no real thoughts for the future.

People ignore reality because they would have to make choices, maybe even some that will have life or death consequences and that is frightening.

People ignore reality because it would require personal responsibility.

Chuck JacksonEditor, scaryreality.com

Excellent example, believing in Santa Claus!

I am of the opinion that religion plays a significant role towards ignoring reality. A large proportion of the American population is taught to believe in God, a deity that cannot be seen, heard, felt or tasted. After listening to preachers, parents, other influential people and a multitude of other believers, it is no wonder that these non-thinking people will believe just about anything they wish to believe. Once they believe, the belief becomes firmly established in their mind.

This is not a new idea, I have read others having this or a similar conclusion.

Will T. Stiner

Pacific Beach

1. We live in a complex world, full of complex issues and questions; people however, like simple answers and ideas that they can get behind easily such as: "support our troops" or "praise the Lord" or "Mission Accomplished" These simple sayings elicit feelings of varying intensity in people but few people ever really look at the facts (or lack thereof) behind the statements.

2. People are naturally joiners not loners, we define ourselves by the company we keep. We belong to a: family, a group of friends, a business, a union, a church, a political party, a neighborhood, a fraternity or sorority, a city, a state, a country and so on. Each of these groups defines itself with a set of particular characteristics, the sum total of those characteristics make it easier to spot "outsiders." When people join a group with a particular agenda and a strong definition of who the outsiders are, the tendency toward group think is more than just an Orwellian concept. In order to maintain good standing within the group the individual is usually willing to give up his/her personal "rational" point of view. Evidence of this can readily be seen throughout history whether its Chairman Mao's cultural revolution that turned children against their parents, or the desperate suicidal attempts of Islamic fundamentalists to bring attention to their cause by taking out as many "outsiders" as they can while getting themselves a free pass to heaven. Many causes and characteristics can bring a group into being, throughout history the most powerful cause has been a call from the divine. From earliest history, groups formed around shared beliefs in the afterlife and deities, from day one, differences in these beliefs were reason to kill. Some things never change.

3. It feels good to steadfastly deny the facts in favor of a belief. I remember hearing of a university study concluding that when people overtly deny the facts in favor of their beliefs their endorphin levels increase. By promoting our unwavering adherence to the rules of the group "The Holocaust never happened" or "No people were displaced with the creation of Israel in 1948" or "There were wepons of mass destruction" we are all the more assured that we belong to that group and will not be left out. These statements have the added impact of dehumanizing and discrediting the outsiders who then will easily become our enemies.

To sum it up: Ignoring reality: simplifies life, gives us greater meaning through belonging, and just plain feels good.

Charles PomeroyBellevue

It's the other way around.

They first buy into the reassuring myth as an absolute truth, then deny realities that conflict with that absolute.

Doug McInnes

Sequim

Psychology lab 101: Say something often enough and people will believe it. Drape the speaker in the authority vestments of a priest, president, or pundit and more people will believe it. Block out the true story while telling the tall story, and yet more people will believe it. Listening is easy, digging out facts and evaluating alternatives is more difficult. Politicians and propagandists know this well.

Religion 101: Many of us were brought up being taught that belief in a religion was the most important thing in life and eternity. At a young age we are conditioned to accept reassuring myths of our tribe; and alternatives are called heresy.

TV 101: We are conditioned to sit passively and suspend disbelief in order to be entertained by fiction. We are also conditioned to think news programs expose unbiased true reflections of events.

History 101: The history we are taught in school is largely washed clean of any of our negative actions. So later, if there is a current story of evil deeds done by our government, it is hard to believe because it is outside of all we were taught of ourselves and our history.

Shucks 101: An odd contrary streak of many Americans can make them want to argue a point partly to show they strong enough to stand up against any pointy-headed ivory-tower bleeding-heart story, and thereby defy recognizing authority figures they resent.

I have known well people who have seen leprechauns, flying saucers, wolf-person changelings, psychic surgery, psycho-kenesis, transubstantiation, and believed in the rapture, believed there were Iraqi WMD in 2003, and think they would be able to snow-shoe through a nuclear winter. Some of these are funny and harmless; others are deadly serious.

Countering forces that lead to blind unconditional beliefs, and fostering a favor for full information and diverse public opinions may be as important to the survival of planet earth as is nuclear disarmament.

Dwight RousuRedmond

The hard reality is that humans die ... and that's it ! The Jewish people have never believed in heaven or hell, or in Jesus. Funny isn't it, that the miraculous birth of Jesus, his remarkable life and then his death and resurrection went largely unnoticed in the region at the time. It was a generation later that Paul put pen to paper and wrote about Jesus. That one source (the New Testament ) is the only record of him. The Jesus story is mostly plagarism from the Vedas, an ancient Brahman prayer book detailing the life of the sun god Mithra who was worshipped 1500 years B.C.

Your pastor will never explain that the "pagans" in the Bible were followers of Mithra, the prevailing religion in Iran, Iraq, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, India, Greece and other parts of Europe including Italy and even England. It was the Roman soldiers who took their favorite god to all the countries they conquered. Other mythological gods have the same basic story as Jesus. They include Horus, Osiris, Adonis, Krishna, Buddha, Indra and Hercules (and others). The Jesus story is a retread of a fable that still lives among us. The promise (or bribe) of life everlasting in a perfect heaven is so sweet to contemplate. I doubt that many will check out this stuff in an encyclopedia since most people ignore reality and cling to their sweetest daydreams.

Ruth C. PyrenOak Harbor

The first reason people would not accept something is the source and its credibility. Bush, Cheney, et al., obviously wanted the war in Iraq and have treated anyone who disagreed even on factual items as disloyal. Even now they do not seem to admit there were not weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. They were not going to get hung up on reality. Likewise, Jim McDermott seems to regard George W. Bush as worse than Saddam Hussein. Similarly, during the Cold War, many on the left were indignant about misdeeds by America or our allies but seemed unconcerned about far worse things committed by the Soviet Union and other communist powers. Hard to give credibility to either side.

Second, people tend to filter information to fit their own biases or desires. Not satisfied with having their own opinions, they want their own facts. This problem afflicts both ends of the political spectrum. Admitting that uncomfortable information would mean admitting you or your side is not perfect and may be responsible for some of the problems, and that the people on the other side may be right on some points.

Conspiracy theories help explain a messy world and imply that someone could control what happens, when in fact most things are the random playing out of individual decisions and actions. For someone believing the Bush administration conspired to bring down the World Trade Center, the belief means that getting rid of Bush would get rid of the problem of terrorism. For people who believe Iraq was involved in 9/11 and that it did have weapons of mass destruction, the belief means not having to admit that Bush messed up, that the war was a mistake, or that a lot of people may have died for nothing. It also gives the illusion of solving the problem, even though the war is distracting us from Afghanistan, where the Taliban is resurgent, and the human rights issues and corruption of Saudi Arabia, which remains a garden for breeding terrorists.

Mike HarperSeattle

Having had the luxury of traveling extensively around the world and spending time with many different people from many different cultures, the friends I have (here in the U.S. and abroad) that continue to support beliefs and thoughts that just don't hold up facts are the people that have not traveled much. They have stayed close to home for most all of their lives.

Therefore, I believe that the lack of extensive travel to other countries (and even within the USA) has allowed these people to remain narrow in their thoughts, having never had cause to re-evaluate or expand their own thoughts and beliefs when faced with people and cultures that are very different from their own. They hold on to these thoughts and beliefs and when questioned they admit that many were passed on from their parents (that received them from THEIR parents and so on).

In short, staying close to home keeps ones beliefs and thoughts also close to home. It is easier to not think, not challenge those around you that you live with, if you have never seen other people living in other ways in societies that teach other values, histories, and world outlooks.

Jay HitchcockSammamish

The "conspiracy theory" that the Bush administration was complicit in the 9/11 attacks is not that far-fetched. They didn't have to organize or execute it. They had to do one thing: order the military to stand down when it appeared that planes had been hijacked. After that, all they had to do was ... nothing.

You might consider reading at least one of these three books: "The New Pearl Harbor" or "The 9/11 Commission Report-- Omissions and Distortions," both by David Ray Griffin; "The War on Freedom -- How and why America was attacked on Sept. 11, 2001," by Nafeez Mosaddeq Ahmed.

Elaine JamalFederal Way

Denial of reality is very dangerous and epidemic. People ignore hard realities because if they were to peek at the truth they would find their leaders are not acting with truth, justice and the American way. Bush, with his hand on Alan Greenspan's shoulder said, if I were dictator this would be easier, signed into law PATRIOT I and II making the USA a dictatorship.

A Big Lie repeated often is believed as thinking for oneself is harder, takes more work and would require actions to be a responsible citizen. Tools to commit voter fraud are now mandated by law and our Republic may already be lost.

Theresa Marie GandhiClinton

18

Albert Einstein said, "Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity ... We can't solve problems with the same thinking that created them."

Perhaps we are not so stupid as just lazy, reluctant to extend our thinking beyond the comfort of formula and convention. Dissent and diversity are then threatening; we want our truth to be compliant and convenient and not call for any introspection or sacrifice. We are, by nature, sheep ... trusting that those who lead us, protect us, and collect our fleece, would not forsake us for their own gain. So we happily subordinate our will to theirs, most notably for war.

Adolf Hitler said, "What good fortune for governments that people do not think." His general, Hermann Goering proclaimed at his trial: "The people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism."

This human foible of being so easily duped, as so humorously described in an ancient Chinese parable, is certainly well known today by the planners in our White House, who parade our smiling naked Emperor into the street so we can admire and cheer his new clothes: the gift of democracy at the point of a bayonet. The resulting bloodshed and hatred of our nation, we are told, makes us safer.

What "good fortune" it is for the profiteers who spin the comforting myths, that Americans are so eager to embrace them.

Mark LindstromLeavenworth

Your question suffers from a flaw in its assumption that it is you who know "reality" or the "facts." Unfortunately the mass media today perform the function of defining acceptable limits of dialogue by limiting the range of inquiry.

So many people still think Hussein had WMD because many in the media simply repeated over and over Bush and Cheney's lies. The White House press corp had largely become a group of stenographers repeating the "facts" and defining the "reality" of deception.

Second, you cite three totally unconnected issues as the basis for your question. By including the holocaust deniers, you use guilt by association to tar the other issues' veracity.

Now that there is a broad number of people who question the government's version of 9/11 the media are jumping to defend it. Well if that's reality explain this:

1. Look into how NORAD operates. It takes eight minutes to get a fighter into the air to check out an errant aircraft. How come four hijacked planes flew off course for nearly an hour without being intercepted?

2. Explain WTC Building No. 7; it collapsed perfectly with an internal uncontrolled fire. It was not hit by an airplane or next to the twin towers?

More and more people want answers to these and other questions, it is your job as a journalist to explore, not insult those who have the curiosity so lacking in journalism today.

Paul KeltonSeattle

It is not such a big step to favor beliefs over facts when one considers our ability to rationalize every sort of human behavior. We humans simply substitute a good or reasonable reason for the real reason that we need and deserve an extravagant house, or vehicle, or the next "whatever." These, often minor, escapes from reality pave the way for some to justify believing things that are not true. Unless they are completely ignorant, my guess is that they are actually aware of the true facts. Denial of reality is just a form of rationalization.

Barry BridgeKirkland

Once people allow themselves to even consider the hard realities, they may then be expected to take some action and/or change their behavior.

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They prefer the comfort of their reassuring myths, which shields them from the truth as they carry on their lives in some pretend world that they have created for themselves. The first step for people with an addiction problem is to admit that they have one.